Halo: Helljumper
by StevieJr
Summary: This is a story of an ODST Shock trooper by the name and rank Sergeant Karl Kühn during the events based in Halo 3: ODST. He dropped into New Mombasa unaware of actually how bad the battle would get. Can he survive? Will he find his squad? Rated M- For violence and video game rating.(Completed story)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, this is my first Fanfiction I am writing updates might come slow at first since I am making this from the top of my head which is uncommon for most people that make fanfiction in the first place. Even though I am a noob I am not a noob to writing so I hope you enjoy the story.**

Karl was sitting in his barrack reading a book. He was the quiet type and got selected put into the ODST because of his actions in previous battles. Especially since his survived the war on Reach. His squad was aware that he was the quiet type, so they didn't bother him. The only time he really spoke often was when he was barking out orders or confirming them to a superior rank. All in all he was a good soldier. Full of bravery, discipline, and a warrior heart.

Lieutenant Ramsay walked into the barrack, Karl's commanding officer of his platoon, "Whatcha reading there Sergeant?" he asked the quiet soldier. Karl turned his attention to the Ramsay, got up and saluted, "At ease Kuhn" he sat back down onto the cot. "I am reading about a war that ravaged Earth centuries ago", he responded. Intrigued Ramsay asked, "Which war?" Kuhn looked up again and responded in an annoyed tone ,"The Second World War". Ramsay didn't want to bother Karl any longer so he didn't ask what the war was about. "Well I have to meet up with the Company CO, enjoy your book Sergeant." Karl nodded and Ramsay left the room.

Another day on the cruiser called the _Say My Name_. Karl after reading more of his book felt a grumble in his stomach, he got up put a marker where he was in his book and put it in his footlocker. He made his way to the Mess hall at a normal pace observing his surroundings. Around him were other marines minding their own business so he went back to minding his. He was not much of an ease dropper and never intended to be one. That's how rumors were spread and he knew rumors were never good for morale.

When he made it to the mess hall he saw his squad in the far right corner of the large room. He went to the line and got his food, he then continued to walk over to the table with his fellow comrades. "Evening sarge." Said Corporal Brandy. One of his favorite comrades and someone he could call a friend. Though he didn't say it often. He nodded at the corporal and the other ODSTs. Around him were of course Corporal Brandy, then there was Corporal Rogers, he was from a region in North America, he had brown hair and brown eyes a thin face and light stubble. Karl himself had brown hair and light blue eyes, clean shaven and standard cut hair. Most would call him handsome, but he was indifferent to comments. Brandy however was an interesting character. She was the morale booster of the group always trying to make sure everyone got along. She had long blonde hair however it was in a bun due to standard military rules on looks. She had green eyes and the face of a "supermodel". Most marines would non stop flirt but she was never to be messed with despite being a charming individual."Where is the rest of the guys." Karl asked quietly, "They are all at some meeting, I heard rumors that the covenant might of found Earth", Brandy replied with a serious look. "Why wasn't I invited to the briefing?" Karl responded in a serious tone as well. "It is only for officers not NCOs or we would of been there too, most likely why they didn't ask us to come", Karl nodded in agreement, he went on with eating his 'food' and every once and a while talking to the other two at the table.

 **How was this first chapter? Please let me know and review that way I can see if you guys enjoyed it or not. Thus ends the first chapter of my first fanfic.** **Also please let me know if I should make this chapter longer because I fell personally that it is kinda short.**

 **After contemplating with my brain I will be making the chapter longer.**

After finishing his dinner Karl exited the mess hall with a nod to the other two soldiers that were with him. He returned to his barrack to find most of the soldiers have returned from their daily duties. Ramsay walked in a few minutes after Karl looking a bit upset. "Alright boys and gals if you would all gather around me" He said waving his hand as if to gather something. "We have a serious situation which I have been tasked to brief you on" he paused for a moment as to think "The Covenant... Has found out Earth's location..."pausing as to add dramatic influence "...and they have sent a super carrier near it. An invasion has started on our home fucking planet" Karl was upset and he looked around to see the other marines in either shock disbelief or pure anger and hatred.

Karl got up from his seat and walked over to Ramsay "LT Sir, I will stand by your side to defend Earth" others joined in "Yeah, fuck the covies" a couple said. Soon a flare on the comms said all report to the armory and get your gear because the ODSTs were dropping to a city called New Mombasa, that was currently being invaded by the Covenant.

Karl got his standard issue M7 SMG and put on his helmet it had two white stripes on the top to signify he was a squad leader. Karl then got plenty of ammo and grenades. He saw Brandy getting a DMR rifle, he looked over and saw Rogers getting a shotgun and him putting slugs and buckshot into his ammo pouches.

Karl got with Rogers and Brandy and nodded to them, they begun jogging down the hall to the staging area for the pods. The whole company of ODSTs were in formation, just like training waiting for the all clear to board their pods. Karl looked over to Rogers and Brandy "See you on the ground, for the UNSC" they repeated after him "For the UNSC".

They all boarded their pods when a siren like sound went off. Karl got into his pod and put his M7 into a weapon slot on the side, that's when he realized. _Where is my sidearm._ He face palmed his helmet realizing he made a mistake he never makes. It was too late to exit now because all were ready and they were already being deployed. Karl held on to railing on his pod. He taught himself never to be nervous before a drop or during because it was bad for mental health. His mental health anyways.

His pod was finally deployed and he thought of better things. He looked around at the Earth and the stars surrounding it. Soon he closed his eyes and was ready for all hell to break loose.


	2. Chapter 2

**Been a while since I uploaded a chapter, I'm a lazy shit.**

Karl was sitting in his pod trying to comprehend the G- Forces that were grinding at him while he was flying towards the Earth. He took a moment to take a deep breath and look around the window of the pod, he saw how pretty the Earth was from this angle, but then he saw the fire coming from the city below, and covenant aircraft flying above it followed by UNSC fighters.

Soon he saw how close the ground was coming at him and quickly held his breathe for a moment, it wasn't his first drop, but it was his first drop against a foe he knew was more powerful than the UNSC. Karl saw the shade turrets on a building shooting at the pods and was spotting some of the pods taking hits from the turrets and turning into a ball of flames right before his eyes. Soon he felt a hard tug as the parachute was deployed and the small boosters trying to slow him down.

Before he knew it he was smashing into the ground with force. But only for a second. Karl looked around and saw that he had hit the ground, without incident, but he didn't see any other pods near him.

He tried comms, "Anyone read? This is sergeant Kuhn." No response so he decided to leave it be.

He pressed the button on the pod to his left and the door shot open and landed into a building smashing a wall. Quickly he grabbed his M7 and stepped from the pod, crouching down next to it to examine his surroundings. To the north, which was his left he saw a tower. With a sign that said 'otel' looking down he spotted the 'H' which he put two and two together easily and found out it was a 'Hotel'. To his right which was south he saw a small stream which he guessed was the sewer system being exposed from the war zone.

After thinking over his options he started cautiously walking towards the hotel. Ducking behind walls and cars when a banshee flew overhead. To signal his fire team where he was going he marked it on the HUD, hoping that they will see the marker and head towards it. He knew he needed his team if they were going to survive this fight.

Now that he thought about it while treading through the empty city on this would be nice night, he kind of missed his team, Brandy's morale boosting attitude and Roger's sarcasm. He soon got his mind off the subject when a banshee flew overhead and he jumped into and alleyway and hit his shoulder on a pole that was sticking out of a destroyed wall, most likely an old water pipe. He grunted as it cut his exposed area of his arm. But soon ignored it as it was not severe enough to waste medical supplies on.

Soon Karl made it to the hotel looking around the lobby debris and trash were thrown all about the once nice looking lobby. He thought maybe he stayed here before on leave, but then noticed that it was not the same hotel as the room doors were different. Karl walked over to the reception desk and was met by a horrifying sight, not the he has never seen something horrible before, but this was different, it was a human skeleton with some of the flesh still on it and clothes all gone. He looked closer now sweating under his helmet, he saw that it was a female, once probably a women trying to make a living, not probably devoured by brutes. He couldn't help but get a feeling of sadness, but soon shook it off not wanting to look like a wimp in front of... Only himself, as he looked around not seeing anyone else but him and the corpse of the girl.

After finding out the bottom floor was secure Karl wanted to get to the roof to get a better vantage point over the city, because this was one big hotel and he was going to use that to his advantage. Karl went over to an elevator and pressed the button, he didn't know what to expect. But nothing happened, so he was shaking his head at himself for being so dumb, 'of course the power is out you dumb ass' he though to himself. He wasn't himself today especially after seeing the corpse. Making his way to the stairs he soon saw more corpses. But they were local police forces, he guessed they were maybe trying to defend the building when they were attacked. Then he saw past those and all around this floor of the hotel were corpses of civilians. Men, women, children. He didn't know what to think, he was getting a mixture of anger and sadness. He took off his helmet, which he immediately regretted and puked all over the ground. This definitely was not normal for him, he was usually so much more strong. But he couldn't help but feel dread as he looked around again. But Karl didn't cry, he put his helmet back on and grabbed his gun off the ground.

He was going to avenge these people, he was going to show the covenant just how pissed he was. He jogged down the stairs back to the first floor, being on the second it wasn't that hard. Soon he was full sprint to the back of the building, sliding into cover he was looking around keeping his composure when he spotted a squad of Brutes and grunts, stalking the shadows he got to a flank on the other side of the street that was about 10 meters away. He grabbed a grenade off his utility belt and primed it. But waited. He then went full sprint towards the group and took them completely by surprise, they didn't budge they were too shocked to move, seeing one ODST charging them was shocking enough for them to not even react other than staring at him. This is exactly was Karl had predicted. He then slid legs first between the group and dropped the grenade gracefully at their feet, even adding to it by waving as he slid past. Quickly sliding under a large truck that was on the other side of the brutes and grunts. He climbed up onto the trailer so shrapnel would not catch his feet. After a second the grenade went off with animalistic screams of pain and high sequels.

Getting off grasping the trailer and looking around the truck which was dripping blood, he looked and saw the massacre and took off his helmet, looking at them for a second and then spitting on all their corpses. "Fucking animals," Karl mumbled and then put his helmet back on, just when he did that he saw movement from his left, he looked and saw one of the brutes was still alive, but his lower torso was gone. They may have been savages, but he was not, so he walked up to the brute to shoot him with his pistol, then Karl remembered he had left it in the rush to the pods. So Karl aimed his M7 at the brutes head and unloaded 5 rounds into it, killing it instantly.

Then he slowly walked back to the hotel finally feeling a little better than he avenged those people, but he knew that 3 brutes and 4 grunts didn't cause this, it had to be a whole damn company of them. But he felt better knowing some of the culprits were dead.

Karl found himself next to a room in the hotel and he kicked the door in, for some much needed stress relieving, also known as sleep in his book. He walked over to the bed not bothering to take off his helmet and laid down on the bed feeling how soft it was and fell asleep almost instantly. But a sound woke him up, he pulled up his SMG that was still in his hands and walked over to the door and looked around, nothing. 'Well fuck' he thought, and went for some much needed recon after he heard the noise. He looked down the stairs to see something he never though he would see. Brandy was stalking up the stairs, he was smarter than to say nothing and end up getting friendly fired. "HEY, Brandy!" Karl shouted and she jumped and nearly fell down the stairs, "You prick!" she yelled back, "I could have fallen and broken something", "But you didn't? Did you?" "Oh shut up, can you tell me what all these bodies are about?", he was then back into serious mode. "Brutes" as he said this he felt even from here, Brandy's heart drop.

"You're kidding", she said, "I wish I wasn't corporal". She sighed as she finished walking up the stairs, and took off her helmet. "Follow me, I have a room that was not littered with corpses", Karl said nodding his head in the direction "Is that an offer sergeant?" Brandy asked in response, Karl scoffed, knowing his long time friend was joking, as she always does as a charming person. "Cut it out, save it for later", he said as he turned a corner, Brandy in tow, he nodded into the room and she instantly plopped on the bed, "Christ this is a nice bed" "Yeah I thought the same you can sleep if you want, I'll keep watch" Karl said feeling her exhaustion from across the room. As Brandy fell asleep Karl walked over to a chair in the corner of the room and pushed it to where he could see anything that would come through the door and sat in it. Not letting any sleepy feelings get into his brain.


	3. Chapter 3

Karl was sitting checking his gun, no problems with it. He got up and walked over to Brandy where she was sleeping, he noticed the dirt all over her pretty face. Shaking these thoughts, Karl shook Brandy, "Hey wake up" Karl raised his voice a little but not enough to where a lot of enemies, if nearby, would hear. "Fuck off, I'm tryin' to sleep" while she slowly opened her eyes, "I don't give a fuck we need to move, if Rogers doesn't come to us we need to go to him," Brandy nodded her head with a sigh and put her helmet on while swinging her feet off the bed. "So you think he was one of the guy that got shot out of the sky?", Brandy said with a sigh "There is a chance, but I don't think so none of the pods I saw near me got hit, just ones far off." He sighed and looked out the window of the hotel.

"We were all deployed together remember, so he should be nearby." He noted to her while walking over to the door.

"Well that's some relief for me." She said while following him over.

The two man team walked down the stairs to the lobby. Trying their best to ignore all the corpses once again. Brandy tripped over one but Karl quickly turned around and grabbed her shoulder, "Be more careful, don't need you hurt," Karl said while lifting her back up. "Awww, you do care," Brandy responded in a sarcastic tone that Karl surprisingly didn't get because he was very focused on the mission ahead. "Well yeah I care about you, I also care about rogers, but we can do all the caring after we find him." Brandy perked up at this because she didn't expect him to not get the joke, but she tried her best, because Karl never talked about his feelings.

Soon they were walking out of the building, it was morning now, about 0600 hours (6:00 am). The sun was trying its hardest to peak through the clouds of smoke that were rising from the city, so it seemed as if it was still dark.

Karl and Brandy continued walking, Karl more cautiously then Brandy, sometimes looking as if he was twitching and a crazy old man in the hills of Alaska. But that was because he was at maximum combat awareness, they were alone, no comms, no navy to help defend them. So they had to rely on their firefight skills which was for both of them a very high standard.

"So where we headed." Brandy finally asked in a quiet tone.

"Why are you asking?" Karl responded while telling them to halt with his hand, and crouching down behind a car.

"Well, you never told me, shithead." "Oh, well we are going to the rendezvous point set for all the ODST that dropped. Sorry I thought I had told you.

"Oh well you didn't, usually you would you are not in your best state today." She said with a short sigh and yawn.

They continued walking through the destroyed city, debris and trash were thrown all over the place, with the occasional corpse, this time not torn to shreds so Karl could handle seeing it without rage flowing through his veins. He was broken from his thoughts when he heard a shriek and a few grunts were walking from a tall building that was leaning to the side a bit. He ducked down but just enough to observe what they were doing. He saw them dragging a soldier out, more or less another ODST from his pod. But he was unconscious and had a crack in his helmet. With a green stripe down his arm, Brandy had a purple one, Karl didn't have any because he respected protocol, but does have a couple white stripes on his helmet to tell people he was a squad leader.

When he saw the green stripe he knew right then it was rogers, especially when he looked over to his pod and saw the shotgun the rogers always used. Brandy seemed to notice this as well and readied her Battle Rifle. Karl looked back and used his hand in a down motion to tell her to stand down. She followed his orders and pointed her BR back at the ground. Karl then noticed a Brute come out of the building and a Sangeihli, 'Oh fuck' Karl thought. "Oh fuck, that, shit." He turned and saw Brandy shaking her head and her hands were shaking, like she was nervous.

"You, better have... A fucking plan." Brandy said after spotting the energy sword. "Shut up they are talking." He responded back in a serious tone.

They were indeed talking, but it was more like arguing, most likely the brute not agreeing with his commanding officer. At least that's what he saw and heard in the tone of their voices, having not a clue of what they were saying in their much alien to him language. "Hmmm, from the looks of it they are in a heated argument." Karl said while checking his gun carefully. After thinking over his options he knew what the plan would be. While they were distracted silently take out the grunts and then grab Rogers and get the hell out of dodge, he was just hoping that they two giant creatures would not spot them. After relaying his plan to brandy she nodded.

"Alright, since you have range I will need you to cover me while I kill them silently, I may have forgotten my pistol but I didn't forget my knife." He said while sneaking off on the last word.

He was slowly going up to the grunts that were only 20 meters away, and he was approaching with as much stealth as he could muster in the armor he was wearing. Which the stealth was moderate considering it was black and it was completely dark over the city. After reaching the first grunt he knew there could be no grenades as it was mere feet from where Roger's, still breathing body was lying. Karl quickly and efficiently grabbed the first grunt and sliced his throat while holding its breather so a noise wouldn't be produced from it's tiny little mouth. '4 Left' Karl thought as he went around the other flank and killed the most exposed grunt quickly. then he ran into a problem, all the other grunts were together, it was the that he knew what to do. Slowly turning the safety off, trying to match the gunfire in the distance so it would be quiet and no one but him would hear the click. He aimed up behind the destroyed car, knowing his SMG was suppressed. Holding his breath he unloaded 30 silent shots into the 3 grunts 10 in each, a little over kill but they didn't give mercy to humans. After they were dead he crouched and crouch walked over to Roger's body checking over his wounds. He didn't even put up a fight as there was no scratches except for a single large burn mark on his side. 'No, it can't be' Karl thought as he slowly touched the energy sword stab near the mans kidneys.

Trying not to cry, 'I always thought you were going to die with a fight kid' he said to himself. He took off Roger's helmet to see his face and his eyes were open. 'He died right when I got here, because from a distance I thought he was breathing' "Fuck man, I'm sorry" he mumbled to himself, "I won't let that animal devour you." He said as he slowly slipped a small charge into his hand from his tactical backpack. 'At least they will die' he thought as he put the charge under Roger's body. He the quickly stalked back into the shadows and took cover in a nearby alley way just as the Elite and Brute saw the dead grunts. They ran over to soon be met with an explosion after Karl hit the button on the C4 charge and engulfed the two in flames, looking over after the explosion he saw they were dead and Roger's was completely gone. He did what was best.

He went back over to Brandy who looked a little shocked, she had no idea what happened. "What happened over there Karl?" His first name, she was serious. Karl went over to her, he wanted to tell her but couldn't bring up the courage despite being a soldier supposed to not be afraid of anything. For the first time in Karl's life he didn't tell the truth. "He sacrificed himself to save me, after they saw us." He said while cringing under his helmet. "Well at least he died the death he always wanted." He sighed knowing this wasn't true. "Let's move, we need to make it to that rendezvous point."

They didn't say anything the whole way there, it was silent, but Karl preferred the silence and savored it.

Getting to the rendezvous point they were met with, absolutely nothing. No one was here except them. They walked into the building which seemed like a police station, they were expecting to at least walk up upon a few sentries guarding the perimeter, but no one was here. Not a single soul that dropped from the sky yesterday. Sighing he turned to Brandy, "Looks like we are the first ones to show up, well we mine as well make sure its clear and there are no covenant here." Brandy nodded and mumbled an, "Of course sergeant."

Karl went around a corner in the police station to be met with a body of a policemen, he saw the burn marks and knew right then it was plasma, but large plasma marks. He had seen these before and guessed it was a plasma rifle lots of Elites carried those kinds of weapons. Upon further inspection the policemen was unarmed and still in normal uniform not in any combat armor. He pistol wasn't even out of the holster, that's when he knew it had to be cloaked hostiles in the area.

"Corporal, I need you to come to my position, now." He said on the short range radio. He waited a second. No response. "Fuck!" He yelled as he rushed to the area she went to. He was shocked when he saw her laying on the ground struggling with a Spec Ops Elite, these guys were bad news. He didn't think but acted, he never does this, he charged the Elite and full linebacker tackled him off of Brandy while with the other arm taking out his knife. He slammed the elite into a wall and began stabbing its chest. The elite was having none of it and grabbed Karl by his arm and put a hand on his chest tossing him into the wall 10 meters away.

Karl was not affected by this much. "Brandy get up and fucking run!" he yelled while also grabbing her arm and pulling her up, she did what she was told and ran knowing Karl would win this fight, some where deep in her heart.

Karl however stood his ground and had his knife pointing outward, already knowing what he was going to do. The elite however grabbed his energy sword and activated it, making that terrifying sound. Terrifying to anyone but Karl sound. He had fought these bastards before, on reach. The elite charged him, just what he was expecting and he dodged to the left and outward kicked the elite's knee making it grunt as it's knee was shattered in mere seconds. Karl then turned with a lot of momentum and stabbed the crouching, on his level elite, in the back of the throat. After some gurgling the elite fell to the ground with blood spewing from its open wound. Karl cleaning off his knife on his pant leg, sheathed the knife back into his shoulder knife sheath.

He then grabbed his and Brandy's weapons and walked over to the girl who was sitting in the corner he face in her knees with her helmet off. He didn't know what was wrong but he put the BR in the corner and crouched next to his friend. "Hey, there a reason you're crying." She looked up at him and nodded, Karl didn't need to ask but he went with instinct. "What happened?" He asked with a serious and kind of blunt tone, he was never emotional. At least like this, he just was in a fit of rage at seeing him on top of Brandy about to kill her. "He came out of no where..." she sucked in a deep breathe to compose herself. "That fucker said he was going to dominate me and show who was the superior race." He didn't need to pry he knew exactly what that meant and what would have happened if he wasn't fast enough. The Lieutenant was the kind of guy who would of let this shit happen. That man Ramsay, Lieutenant Ramsay was a piece of shit he would have enjoyed watching.

Karl did what he knew he had to do and pulled her into a friendly hug. Not holding her too tight but enough that was comforting. He had never seen her cry like this. Usually she was always happy, but she had never been on Reach. She cried for what he guessed was an hour and a half or two, but he didn't mind he just wanted her to feel better, to let out all of the stress from the battle that was happening, and what happened was enough to finally crack her out of her soldier shell. A threat of rape. He hated the thought of it, he knew the Spec Ops were criminals and evil sangheili, put into service for some redemption. That was never an excuse.

Finally she had stopped crying and seemed to now be asleep, so he grabbed her careful not to wake her up and walked her bridal style over to the armory of the police station, and laid he down in the corner on a bench. It wasn't until then that he noticed her arm was around his neck, and he would have thrown her off the bench. He grabbed her arm and put it down next to her, still body. Karl then walked over and sat next to her, to hopefully stand in the way of anything that would try and touch her ever again.

Karl went over and closed the large armory door and put an assault rifle that was there to act as a latch as well as a chair that was nearby and put it against the handle. Sighing he sat down next to her again. This time he needed some much needed sleep, not sleeping for 30 hours will do that to you. Making sure to keep his weapon close but not putting his knife in his hand so if Brandy woke him up he wouldn't stab her. He the began to go into a not so peaceful sleep but enough to where he wouldn't be tired when he woke up.

Karl slowly opened his eyes and looked behind him first, she was still asleep. He looked at his HUD, it said 16:00, so it was 3 pm, he slept at 10:00 am, so he got some good rest, Brandy was asleep even longer still. He was surprised, but he understood how much stress was on her right now and she needed to get some of it off. Checking his gun he noticed it was still there so he grabbed it, he needed some fresh air. opening the door and looking around all was clear, so he headed to the roof of the building but before doing so grabbing the keys from a dead police officer and locking the armory, he didn't want anything getting in.

Walking onto the roof he noticed a large hole in the ceiling, which he was going to avoid falling into at any given moment. Yawning while sitting and looking at the surroundings, he was relaxed, but still aware of anything that moved. Now being higher up Karl looked at his radio. "This is Sergeant Kuhn, anyone respond." He waited a moment. "We made it to the rendezvous point, anyone respond, me and Corporal Brandy have made it to the rally point, Corporal Roger's is KIA and we need backup, how copy?" Nothing. 'Fuck me' he thought. Karl continued looking over the edge and saw how destroyed the city was, hundreds of cars littering the streets and corpses thrown about like rag dolls, human and alien alike.

"Sergeant, can you unlock the door for me." He heard in his short range. "Yeah, be down in a moment Corporal." He said while hopping up from his sitting position.

Walking down the stairs he went to the armory and pulled out the keys, unlocking the door, he was met with a Brandy battle ready. "Well that's good you look ready to fuck shit up." "Hell yeah, I'm pissed Kuhn" "Save your anger for the fight soldier." He said while grabbing a magnum that was in the armory. "Grab anything you need and lets get out of here, there is no one here anyways, we need to head to a military installation." He said while picking up an assault rifle and putting the SMG on his back. "Roger that." Brandy then began picking up some flash grenades, because that was all the police had. Karl picked up a couple as well, 'these could come useful in the future' he thought while picking up a few.

"Alright let's get ready to move it might be a battle to get to the ONI station." He hated that coming from his mouth, Karl fucking hated ONI, they were a bunch of pricks to him, and they always thought they were all that even though he always beat any operators that challenged him to a sparring match. But this station was their only chance to find some friendly faces.


	4. Chapter 4

**Prepare for a long ass chapter. I also want to thank you guys for 100 views, that's a big milestone for me for people who read my story. And also thank you to bigpapifan238 for following my story I hope you are enjoying it :)**

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As Karl and Brandy were making their way towards the ONI station Karl was keeping very focused and composed, as he always is in most situations. 'I should have kept my control back at the police station, I was just so angry' he thought to himself. He had never lashed out like that, and he could have gotten himself killed if he didn't know how to fight elites especially Spec Ops. Also what came across his mind is Rogers, who he had spent years with in the UNSC almost is whole career, he just moved up the ranks faster than him because he was a better soldier. Rogers was never jealous however. Then he thought of Brandy how she had been at his side as long as he could remember, probably since they met when she was assigned to his fire team during a simulation during training. Most marines would have fallen in love at first sight, be Karl didn't.

Breaking him from his thoughts was a large roar as he turned left on the street, seeing a large brute charging at him. With a gravity hammer. "Brandy look out!" Karl yelled at the top of his lungs. Just in time for Brandy to look at the brute and dodge under the swing of the gravity hammer. "Look away now!" Karl yelled while grabbing a flash grenade from his belt, he threw it right at the brute's legs, going off almost instantly and blinding the large Chieftain.'If it is a Chieftain, there are more around' Karl thought to himself and sighed. It was blinded, but in its fit of rage and lack of vision it was swinging the hammer around hitting everything around it, looking around the angry brute he saw Brandy was about 10 meters away, happy she was safe he started to unload on it with his SMG not wasting any more time to let it live. Brandy was shooting at the large creature as well pelting it with the large BR bullet. After 2 magazines each, the brute finally fell to it's knees. Karl was going to take this opportunity knowing that this animal wasn't dead.

"Hey there buddy boy, Mr. Eat Humans Savage." Karl said in a sarcastic tone as he unsheathed his knife. "What, human we cannot go hungry, can we?" Karl fumed at him saying this and stabbed the knife into his shoulder that the armor didn't cover. It howled in pain and Karl used this as a warning to hurry up because it's men were probably nearby. "Now what's little old Chieftain doing here by itself, either you answer or I will never kill you and let you die a painful death." 'What's making him act like this' Brandy thought as she was standing near a building and guarding the perimeter. Karl's answer was a spit to the helmet, he slowly wiped off the spit with his sleeve.

"Alright be an asshole, must be in your nature." He said as he stabbed the knife into it's other shoulder, followed by a grunt of pain. "You will not get anything out of me puny human." The brute was now clenching it's teeth almost jaw breaking. "Oh alright, that's fine." This time Karl was mad and full force stabbed the knife into the brute's eye. "Gaaaaahhh! My eye!" The Brute screamed as Karl added some circle movements to the stab.

It was interrupted by a beam rifle nearly taking Karl's head off, after that shot went out he knew his time was up to torture this brute, but he didn't have time to kill it. Karl immediately rolled to the side and began to fire at the position in which the large beam came from. After suppressing the most likely jackal with a magazine he rolled behind a car and began to radio Brandy. "Where are you, I didn't see you near me during the interrogation." Brandy responded while panting "I'm on my way got ambushed by grunts, I was patrolling around to make sure you didn't get interrupted." Karl got up and ran to an alley way behind the car while loading another magazine into his M7. Brandy came around the other side with small scorch marks on her armor but none on her flesh which Karl was thankful of.

"Alright, we gotta kill these SOBs, they are between us and allies." Karl was explaining. "Now we have to stick together corporal, or we will never be able to punch through, they most likely have a weak spot, we are going to have to find it. Wait till dark and we will scout their lines and in the morning we assault and punch through that hole. It's dark during the day but darker at night, especially when lights are lacking." Brandy responded "Yes sergeant, I'll inform the men." The last part being said sarcastically, "Oh, ha ha." Karl responded in monotone fake laughter. "Let's find a spot to rest until nightfall, they probably know we ran here. Follow me." Karl said and then got up from his crouched position and ran towards a rear entrance to a building. Getting in a breaching stance, Brandy doing the same on the other side. Brandy nodded signaling she was ready to breach the door. Karl checked the nob and it slid wide open. Brandy then went in first while Karl checked the rear and nothing was there, seeing Brandy go right, he went left.

After it was cleared, he quickly went to the door and closed it before the covenant entered the alley and saw the wide open door. He then closed and took out a zip tie and tied the door handle to a pole next to it on the wall. "Okay secure." Brandy radioed to Karl from the second story of the building. "Okay." Karl responded bluntly. While turning to head upstairs and meet Brandy.

After a short climb up the stairs he found Brandy stripping her weapon to make sure it was not damaged after all the shooting. Karl checked his gun as well but didn't strip it, just noting it's barrel was very hot, and putting it down next to a potted plant in this what seems office. "What time we heading out to recon?" Brandy asked while not turning her focus from her weapon. "Around 2100 hours, making sure it's dark when we head out, don't want to get spotted."Karl said while taking his newly found magnum pistol out and loading a magazine into it, which he never did before. "You know I let that brute live." He said interrupting the silence. "You did? I thought you would have chopped that things head off the way things were going." "Uh, well I might have done that if we were not getting shot at by a damn jackal, I hate those things. Now he is going to hunt us down nonstop, should have killed him." Karl said in a frustrated tone, "If we don't get to the ONI station I'm just going to assume we are fucked." He finished. Brandy didn't respond so Karl assumed he would leave her alone and sat in the corner, observing the office and keeping a close eye on the time. 'Only 2035, for fuck's sake' he thought while rolling his eyes under his helmet and sighing. 'Well mine as well just play ISpy with myself, ISpy a plant, ISpy a M7/Case less magazine, ISpy Brandy, ISpy a desk...' Doing this for the next 25 minutes, Karl finally got up after the time reached 2100(9 pm) he got up and grabbed his weapon already finding Brandy by the door waiting for him.

Karl nodded to her and she nodded back. "You seem ready enough." Karl said while chambering a round into his magnum and putting it back into his holster. "Always am sergeant." She said while priming her battle rifle. "Let's get going, we need to get this recon quick and clean, hopefully there are zero mistakes on this." Karl said while walking out of the door and towards the alley. "Let's see if they actually saw us going into the alley or not, prime a flashbang and wait for my signal." He looked at the door when an idea popped into his head, 'this has to work'. Karl unsheathed his knife and began making a small hole in the door as quietly as possible, considering it was merely a wooden door it would not be hard to go through it with the knife. Making a complete hole in the door the size of a peep hole, he took of his helmet and looked through the small hole in the door. Nothing, there was nothing on the other side, or so he thought, to make sure they were going to throw the flash bang anyway.

Opening the door where the flash grenade will fit through just enough and not a full sized elite or brute Brandy threw the grenade out of the building and Karl quickly slammed the door shut. A second later the bang went off and so did a larger boom followed by the door being thrown off its hinges with Karl on it being flung back 20 feet into a wall with the door adding to the weight. With sounds of labored breathing coming out of his nose Brandy ran over, "Holy shit Karl are you okay!" while pulling the door off of him. "No..." He said with a chuckle and smile, "I'm feeling fantastic." Karl then got up slowly and began breathing carefully. "You're a dick" Brandy said and punched him in the arm, where the pipe had cut him two days prior. "Ow.." Karl then grabbed his helmet and put it on while also grabbing his gun that flew across the room.

"Okay let's move I guess they set a mine and we set it off with that grenade, better the door was blocking the plasma than my corpse." Karl said halfheartedly. "Hey if you die I don't know what I would do Karl." Brandy responded in a serious tone, "If you die I'm going to be alone and I hate being alone, you know that." Karl sighed knowing this was true.

"Well sometimes being alone helps me, sometimes is they key word there." Karl said while walking against a wall in the alley way, to stay discreet. "Yeah for you, unlike you I like to talk to people, it's how I keep calm."

"Then why don't you tell me how one elite managed to break your warrior shell?" Karl responded not looking back and stopping. "Well... I mean a threat like that doesn't not go without causing some trauma. I hate being a damsel in distress." Brandy said with a sadness in her tone. Karl sighed, "Well I was a damsel in distress once, but I was saved just like you were." "So you were nearly raped?" "Oh, hell no, but I was close to being killed, I mean this time I was real close, not like other times I put myself at risk." Karl sighed and looked at Brandy, "Look what nearly happened to you would have never happened, and I hope has never happened in the past, I was nearby and I would never leave a team mate on their own, so you won't be alone. You have me." Karl sat there looking at the ground, trying to go over what he just said. Brandy then walked up to him and took him in a long hug. Sitting there when they could be on recon, but Karl wasn't focused on recon right now. "Thanks, Karl." She said as she let go of the hug. "No problem, gotta keep morale up, right?" Karl said, Brandy nodded. "Now let's get moving we have a mission to complete."

Around an hour later they had scouted the streets and found a large gap, a road that wasn't guarded by any squads. Karl still wanted to be cautious so he got a closer look and found that it was completely unguarded, 'I guess they forgot a small street' he thought as he was in a building next to the intersection. 'We will have to move fast though, I don't think we can wait until tomorrow morning, sleep will have to wait until we get to that ONI base'. "Brandy." Karl said quietly, "What?" She responded.

"We will have to move tonight, I don't know when they will find this gap in their line so we need to move past it right now." Karl said while sneaking over and patting her shoulder. "Alright, right behind you." She responded acknowledging him behind her. They moved silently out of the building, only the sounds of distant gunshots can be heard as they were on the move towards the intersection they had to get past. Karl stopped them and looked both ways. A patrol was moving towards them at a slow pace, they had to run across the road, and fast. 'We can both make it, we are both very good runners' he said to himself.

"Okay Brandy, on my signal, you will run across that road as fast as you can, you got an elite and a squad of grunts, you should be fine moving in this lighting." He said while ducking behind a car. "Okay Karl, you better have my back if shit hits the fan," she said quickly and getting in the ready position. "Alright," Karl said waiting for the patrol to turn their attention somewhere else. "Now!" He quietly yelled, and she nodded and ran across the road full speed successfully making it across.'Thank god' he said in his mind looking up at the sky. When he looked back Brandy was waving him over, he nodded and was about to run when something grabbed him by the throat. His heart stopped, he never feels fear, but he was scared at this moment.

He turned his head to see a Zealot standing before him at least 8 feet tall, and it looked angry. "Well, little human, I am tired of you killing my men, so I will end you right here, right now." The Zealot's mandibles twitching. "Well I hope you know that I usually go down with a fight... Mother fucker!" Karl yelled as he unsheathed his knife before the zealot could react and stabbed it into it's shoulder. The Zealot stepped back and let go of Karl using this as an opportunity Karl knew he wasn't going to win this fight, he ran down the street as fast as he could go, running towards Brandy who was now shooting at the zealot with her battle rifle only to hit shield, that the zealot powered on after the attack. Karl sheathed his knife back into its hilt and got to the other side with plasma rifle rounds going past him. "Mother fucker!" Karl screamed in pain as he felt a plasma round his the back of his leg and he fell sliding several feet before stopping and taking cover behind the car that Brandy was behind. "Are you okay Karl!" She yelled at him while suppressing the zealot, "I am fine, we need to get to that ONI base, now! Run!" Karl commanded, and they both got up, Karl with a bit of a limp behind Brandy, they were both running for their lives, and army of covenant behind them.

Karl and Brandy were running hard, when Karl's pained leg gave out and he fell to the ground with a grunt and small yelp in pain. Brandy instantly stopped and ran over to him and picked him up and put his arm over her shoulder. "We got to keep moving Karl." She said while picking up the pace again this time with him next to her.

After running for 10 minutes they both could not take it anymore both out of breathe they quickly went into and alley way and both fell to the ground panting heavily. "Oh man, I havn't ran like that since basic." Brandy said holding her chest while struggling for air. Karl didn't respond he just sat up looking at the sky, feeling a sharp burning on the back of his leg. He could not see it since it was the back of his leg, "Brandy, I need you to tell me how bad it is." He turned around and was laying on his stomach, not helping the heavy breathing. She looked at his leg where it hit on the lower thigh, it was burnt right through the soft leg armor that was there and it left a 3 inch wide burn that went through the flesh and had cauterized it but it was still bleeding from it being opened by the running. "Looks bad, but I'm not doctor." She said while just wrapping it in a bandage.

He laid there for a while Brandy was watching the entrance into the alley. "I bet you would have kicked that thing's ass." Brandy said, breaking the silence. "Oh yeah? I doubt it myself, but believe what you want to believe." "Don't be so negative, at least he didn't shoot you in a vital organ or vein. And personally... What you did was pretty badass, you should have stuffed a grenade down his throat." Brandy said patting his back. "Well glad you think that, and stuffing a grenade in him wasn't on my mind at the time, I was trying to not be stabbed by an energy sword, that's not a way I would have wanted to die."

"I guess you are right, I would be panicking too if it was me in that damn split lip's arms. Even though I would of targeted the genitals." Brandy chuckled, followed by a chuckle from Karl. "I remember when you kicked that one marine in the crotch that wouldn't leave you alone. That was great I must admit." Karl chuckled.

"Alright I think we should move, we need to get to that base." Karl said getting up slowly, and putting his arm around Brandy's shoulder who got up with him. They then began to walk into the street cautiously Karl bringing out his magnum and setting it off safety. They were walking for a while, Karl trying not to stand on his wounded leg and Brandy trying her best to keep this man up because she was if not less, more tired than he was, but she knew he hadn't slept in two days and was very strong for lasting as long as he did in his state.

Soon they were getting very close to the base, they could see it on the outskirts of the destroyed city and were making their approach. Suddenly Several figures caught Karl's watchful eye. "Stop now, get to cover!" Karl yelled silently and Brandy brought him and herself around to a car on the other side of the street. Taking cover Karl winced a little when he accidentally leaned on his leg. Ignoring it now he peaked through the window of the vehicle and saw several, marines, yes marines were here. He couldn't believe what he saw, some friendly faces. "Brandy, they are friendlies, they are guarding the gate to the base." Karl said followed by Brandy's almost very loud if not covered up shriek of happiness. "Let's go say hello, a hand please." Karl said, Brandy nodded and picked him up again and they walked over to the gate.

He heard one of the marines shout "Get a medic over here!" In the distance and he knew they were finally going to have a break that they needed.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter is going to go into detail about Karl's backstory and what he went through on Reach.**

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Karl was sitting on a Falcon heading towards New Alexandria, the city was in ruin from the covenant siege that was currently taking place. He had no idea what he was about to go through and how hard this battle for his life would be as him and his squad descended into the LZ. "Alright boys! We are going to be giving them hell, make sure to have all of your weapons locked and loaded!" His sergeant was shouting as they were landing. Grabbing the assault rifle from his back and checking the ammo counter. 60 rounds, perfect. "Alright drop!" The sergeant yelled and all of them began to slide down ropes that were deployed off the side of the Falcon. Karl jumped onto one of the ropes and slide down quickly boots touching the ground and spreading dust around him as he landed. "Hey Kuhn, glad to see you here." Rogers said coming up and patting his shoulder. "Glad to be here Rogers." He said in response taking his hand and shoulder bumping the fellow ODST trooper. "This is going to be a shitstorm you know, right?" Rogers said loading shells into his shotgun. Karl nodded in response.

"Form up assholes!" The sergeant yelled as he and his 6 man team got into a staggered column to go down the road. "Alright keep and eye out, Kuhn!" The sergeant yelled at the weary corporal. "As assistant squad leader, take point my boy." The sergeant said patting Karl on the back." "Gotcha sarge." Karl responded sprinting to the front of the column. Taking point was usually an honor of getting shot at first, Karl liked the sound of that. The streets were deserted, not a soul in sight for miles, except for the squad of shocktroopers. Karl was walking cautiously in front of the column making sure if he saw anything to immediately stop the column and tell the sergeant on the comms. Sergeant Bracket was a good man, he was a father and kind of the sergeant you would picture in ever war movie, a loud voice and a very militaristic attitude. Karl saw a little of himself in the man but had a few other qualities that made him much more different than him.

While Karl was thinking about this he saw something in the corner of his eye, that made him immediately raise his fist and crouch, making the rest of the column stop and crouch like him. The sergeant ran up next to him, "What did you see?" he said in his gruff voice. "Something shiny, to the left flank, looked covenant, sarge." The sergeant nodded and pointed at three men Rogers, Williams and Crest, telling them to go check it out without using his voice. All three nodded and silently jogged to where they were told to go. After a few minutes lots of gunshots were heard, rifle and plasma alike. "Let's go help them out." Bracket yelled at all of them and Karl took the lead as they ran towards the combat. When they got there they were met with two dead ODSTs and a large group of dead covenant 1 elite, 2 jackals and 4 grunts. Rogers was sitting behind a dumpster loading a shell into his shotgun.

"They came out of nowhere sergeant, they got Williams and Crest in the chest with beam rifles, the bastards." Rogers said with anger in his voice. "Nothing we can do now, grab their tags." Karl nodded at the order and took the tags from both of the corpses, sighing as he did so. 'They were always a bit careless' he though to himself as he walked over and gave Rogers a hand up. 'At least we have our medic' he thought as he looked over at Graff, a young girl who he thought wasn't even old enough to joined the UNSC, but she checked out.

"Mourn later shitheads, let's stay on task." Bracket said and everyone formed up again, this time they were down to a 4 man team. Bracket, Kuhn, Rogers, and Graff. 'We are going to fucking die' Karl thought while they were this time moving down less common back streets.

As they were moving they could see banshees and falcons fighting in the clouds. The covenant obviously winning the dog fighting. He sighed as he thought of Reach being lost, he liked this planet, but not enough to die here. The only reason he was here was to make sure the covenant never made it to Earth, his home planet and the home of the human race entirely. He did not want what he thought was going to happen, he heard of glassings but never saw one himself. He also observed a covenant corvette above the city, launching the banshees and seraphs and even some phantoms, he knew they were doomed, but they had to fight for as long as possible. "Signalling this airstrike is essential to victory, we will get this done." The sergeant broke the silence. Everyone nodded in agreement to his statement.

The squad now fireteam size made it to the target building, a 100 or so building they needed to get on top of to shoot this thing down and try and retake the city. Reaching the lobby they spotted the elevators. "Alright everyone in, lets get this done quick and clean, the jet packs should be in the elevator, where the Marines left them." Indeed they were there 6 jetpacks, but they only had 4 people, nothing wrong with extras. Everyone grabbed a jetpack and prepared for what was coming next, Karl loved flying, especially when they were doing it in a badass way.

They all got in the elevator and it still worked like a charm. While they were making their way to the roof, Rogers broke the silence. "So Graff..." "What?" She said sharply. "Jeez calm down, I just wanted to ask a question." He said in response. "Well the last question you asked got you kicked in the crotch." She said in a serious tone. Rogers said calmly, "Well this is serious, I just wanted to ask why you joined the UNSC." She replied in a neutral voice, "Well I wanted to help people, mainly do medical stuff, so that's why I am here, as a medic."

"Alright cut the chit chat we are nearly there." Karl said with a finger up to his visor. They were indeed close and were now at the top floor when Karl put his finger down.

They all stepped out of the elevator and walked over to the edge of the roof, Bracket was grabbing the laser designator out of his pouch and pointed it at the covenant corvette. "Command this is Sergeant Bracket of strike team Bravo we are in position, over." He said in a serious tone. Karl then heard radio chatter but couldn't hear it due to it being on a different frequency than his radio. "What do you mean the airstrike isn't available!" He heard the sergeant yell, followed by more frustrated screaming from him. "Well that's bullshit I lost two of my squad members! Oh fuck!" He yelled and pointed at the corvette. "Everyone off the roof now, the fuckers are aimed at us!" He saw what the sergeant was yelling about the corvette was shooting plasma cannons at the building. 'Oh shit' he yelled in his head, and before he knew it he was jumping off the large building towards the ground. "Don't activate till 50 meters, these things have limited energy, you will hit hard but not hard enough to break anything." He heard the sergeant say through the comms. Karl did what was told, his stomach was tingling from the excitement and adrenaline rushing through him.

At 50 meters Karl activated his jump pack and felt the tug at his shoulders as he slowed down significantly and slammed into the ground a few seconds later. He was dazed but not unconscious, he saw a large figure walk over to him, 'Oh no' he thought as he got up and aimed his gun. "Stand down soldier." It said to him. "I need to borrow that." Karl was confused until his vision was completely back. He looked to see a... Spartan, in all of it's glory, right in front of him. "Uhh, of course sir, here take it." He took off the pack and handed it to the spartan who took it and put it on his back. He looked at him and saw it was a spartan wearing green armor with DMR and several other armaments on his armor. "Is, that a fuel rod cannon?" Karl asked the spartan. "Why of course it is kid," the spartan crouched next to him, "Here, take it its a little heavy though, but it kicks ass." The spartan said while handing it to Karl who took it happily. "Appreciate it sir." Karl said while putting it on his shoulder to support it. Karl then heard through the spartan's helmet, "Noble Six are you at the rendezvous?" "Not yet on my way." He responded and patted Karl's shoulder flying up to a small building and disappearing.

Karl then ran over to the rest of the squad who were still on the ground except for Rogers. "Get over here Karl!" Rogers shouted to him and Karl ran over and found Graff desperately trying to pull a large metal pole out of Bracket. 'Oh fuck' Karl said in his mind as he ran over to the sergeant's side. "Karl you are in command now, take these, as he put the dogtags in Karl's hand. "Yes sergeant." Karl didn't really feel anything, but he looked over and Graff was crying mumbling, "I could have saved him." Rogers seemed to be just sighing deeply. "Well, what are your orders corporal." Rogers said putting a hand on Karl's shoulder. "Well we get the fuck out of here before they class the planet." Carl said bluntly and looked over to Graff. "You coming?" Karl then reached his hand out and she took it, Karl pulled her up to her feet. "Just another life pointlessly lost." Graff said trying her best not to cry. "He didn't die pointlessly, he died doing his duty, now let's go." Karl said while pulling on her hand and she followed him, Rogers close behind.

They were quickly treading through the destroyed city as night was approaching and were nearly to the outskirts of the city. Karl in this time was trying his best to get a transport out of the city, but due to enemy air superiority that was nearly impossible. Ground vehicles were being dispatched to pick up pockets of soldiers. Soon a warthog found them and they were making their way out of the city as they watched from a distance it being glassed. Buildings falling instantly, Karl knew this planet was lost, and millions of people died for no reason due to these prophet's false ideals.

Soon they were making their way onto a large UNSC Battlecruiser and making a narrow escape from the planet. Karl looking out of the window from his barrack as the planet was being raised in flames, except for one spot. But he ignored it as a spot they just missed on accident. Having no idea what the humans did to deserve this treatment in any way.


	6. Chapter 6

**Going to be a nice and long chapter to make up for my slacking.**

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Karl woke up in a bed, next to him a very tired and sleeping Brandy, her hand on he chin while she was sitting. He observed the room and saw that it was a normal barrack room, just like on the ship he was deployed from. He also noticed a pain in his leg and looked down to see it bandaged. Still wearing his armor just with his chest and back armor off, as well as his helmet.

"Morning sleepy, you kinda passed out in my arms yesterday night." Brandy said yawning.

"So, I know we made it to the base, who else is here?" Karl asked sitting up and putting his legs off the side of the bed with a wince of pain from one of them. "Well, Ramsay is here." Brandy said sitting up, also out of her torso armor he noticed. "Well I need to speak with him, can I have a hand?" Karl said reaching his hand out, Brandy took it and raised him up to her shoulder.

They walked down the hall until Karl saw Ramsay, the trash human being he called an officer. Karl despised that man, he had very little leadership capabilities. Ramsay noticed the two and turned. "Kuhn, glad to see you are alive, I just got the news someone from my platoon made it." Ramsay said with a frown, "It's a shame no one else from the platoon made it, I thought I made it very clear we were meeting here at this base." Karl stopped Brandy, raising his head and staring daggers at the man, Brandy was just sitting with a shocked look on her face. "Wait, did I hear what I thought I heard... Sir." He said trying to hide his anger, "I thought the rally point was about 4 miles west of here, you said it very clearly." Karl said letting go of Brandy and walking over the the lieutenant with a limp.

"No, sergeant I said we were meeting here." Ramsay said squinting, "Or, did I?" Karl was shocked at what the man was doing, playing these games when men were killed because of his idiocy. Karl sat there stunned for a second. "You, mother... Fucker!" Karl lost all composure and swing hard at the man contacting with his nose and with a sickening crack Ramsay fell back and landed on the floor. "You dare assault an officer! Marines restrain him!" Ramsay yelled holding his nose, it seems the nearby marines heard the conversation and just stood there. "Did you not hear me, arrest him!" They didn't move. "Your idiocy cost the lives of the whole platoon! That's more punishable than what I did, if anything, you belong in the brig!"

Karl looked at the marines, they nodded and grabbed Ramsay on both sides. "You are going to be court martialed for this Kuhn!" Ramsay screamed, not able to resist the veteran marines strength. "So are you, you bastard." Karl mumbled turning his back to a wall and falling to his behind leaning against the cold metal.

Brandy walked up next to him and sat down next to him. "I can't believe what he said. Did he really give us the wrong rally point." Brandy said putting her head back staring at the sealing. "He did." Karl said bluntly, with a hint of anger in his tone, "That mother fucking dick, killed a lot of good marines." He turned his head to a marine that was nearby. "Private!" The marine looked at him and nodded, stating that he was listening. "How long has the lieutenant present at this base." Karl said getting himself up off the floor. The marine was looking at the ceiling, probably thinking, "Uhh, about three days sergeant." He said looking around again, "Yeah, three days."

Karl looked around for a moment, 'so that fucker sat here for 3 days barking orders to the marines, thinking he was a big man huh'. Karl sighed, "So was anyone else in charge other than him. The marine looked at him, "Yeah an ONI agent who ran the base, but uhh, she got killed." Karl looked out the window, they appeared to be on the second floor of the base, he saw marines moving around the base of the building, probably patrolling. "So, who is in charge now since Ramsay is detained." Karl asked the marine, he responded, "Most likely Gunnery Sergeant Xing- Dao, he is downstairs maintaining the defenses." The marine said. Karl nodded and then went and started to head down the stairs, when he leg gave and he fell to his knee. "Fuck" he mumbled.

Brandy appeared behind him, "You know I am still here right?" She said grabbing his arm and pulling him up. Karl nodded and put his arm around her shoulder, mumbling a 'sorry' to her.

Karl looked over to Brandy, he saw for the first time just how pretty her face was, her smooth looking pale, but somewhat dark skin. Her green eyes. Her long blonde hair that she did not have in a bun at the moment but in a ponytail. She was a very attractive women, he could not deny that. But he got a weird feeling in his stomach he had never really had before and his face got hot. Brandy noticed his reddening cheeks, "You okay there Karl, do I need to get you a cold pack?" She said in a slightly sarcastic/ serious tone. "Uhhh, no, just lost in my thoughts." He said a little nervously but not enough to where she could make it out. She shrugged and they kept on their path towards the front defenses.

Karl and Brandy eventually made it to the front of the building and saw the man who they had to guess was the Gunnery Sergeant, he was a short Asian man, but had a serious tone to him and obviously the men followed orders and knew he was no one to mess with, 'probably knows kong- fu', Karl chuckled at himself for stereotyping the man. "Ahh, look who we have here, the shocktroopers." He said while walking up to Karl. "Nice to meet you GS, I am Staff Sergeant Karl Kuhn." The two shook hands and patted each others shoulders, knowing the trouble of being NCOs. "So, I am guessing Ramsay got what he deserved." He said pointing at Karl's fist, that had some blood on it from hitting the man's nose. "Yeah the bastard got a lot of men killed, I am going to see to it he is punished." Karl said looking back at the stairs.

"Well the SOB deserved it big time, he was a prick. Sat on his ass while he had me manage everything from these defenses to getting his coffee." Dao said in a somewhat upset tone. "Looks like you are in command now Sergeant." Karl said with a sarcastic salute. "Yep looks what way, I will make sure this base is ready for anything the split lips send at us, and those hairy ones too." The sergeant said, Karl nodded and got ready to turn around pulling Brandy along with him. "Well I need to go get some rest, if you need me to help lead or do anything, let me know and I will be there in an instant." Karl said before walking off, Dao nodded and Karl turned his head forward again and began going back up the stairs.

Karl let go of Brandy and put his hand on the railing. "What are you doing Karl?" Brandy asked trying not to let him fall. "It is easier going up then down." He said with a grunt as he went up the stairs. Eventually he made it up without incident and got to his room before plopping on the bed with a sigh and his legs hanging off the edge of the bed. He looked at Brandy who sat next to him and looked down at him. He got a good look at her face again, and smiled, a weird reaction, he never smiled for a good reason other than sarcasm. "Oh, my. Is the infamous Karl Kuhn smiling?" She said sarcastically. "Oh whatever Brandy, not my fault your face made me laugh." Karl said sitting up. "Did you just call me ugly?" Brandy said with a fake frown on her face, but Karl bought it. "Uh, no of course not, you are very pretty actually. It's just the face you made when you looked at me." He said reddening at the cheeks, he has never been a womanizer, at least not directly and on purpose. But women fell for him anyways and he didn't know why, always ending in awkward conversations, at least for him.

"Oh so I am pretty now?" She said crossing her arms. "Uh well, I mean, I am not good at conversations like this." He stated openly and sighed. "Karl, look at me." She said and obeyed turning and looking into her amazingly beautiful green eyes. He didn't move for a good 2 minutes just staring into her eyes. Slowly they got closer until their lips met. It was a long kiss and passionate, Karl would have never thought he would ever be able to get a women like Brandy, but he had just gotten herself. They finally parted after a long lasting minute and just stared at each other again. "Well, uh, I better get on my armor and report to Dao." Karl said getting up, "He never requested you Karl, you said it yourself that you wanted to rest." Brandy said patting where he just got up from. Karl didn't want to refuse, he sat back down. Brandy put her head against his shoulder, "You know you are a great man right. Selfless, kind, brave..." Brandy said while sitting close to him, "I have always wanted to be with a man with those traits. Looks like you were the only one that matched." She said putting her arms around him. He responded by putting his arm around her and holding her close, he liked this feeling, but hoped it wouldn't go any further. They had just started their relationship, he didn't think she was trying to push him at all. then he thought about how much he would hate being with someone in a war zone, especially someone he cared about.

"I don't think we should move forward too fast Brandy especially in a combat zone." He said looking around the room. "I don't want it to go fast either Karl, just been a while since I have felt the gentle touch of a man before." Brandy said hugging him even closer. Karl sighed and began laying down, he was very tired. Brandy laid down next to him just putting her arms around him. Soon he fell asleep, for the first time having a decent dream.

Karl woke up with Brandy's arms still around him. He checked the time, it was 0800(8 am) he slowly got out of her grasp and put on his armor and helmet, on the way out he grabbed his assault rifle putting it on his back, also grabbing his M7 smg sliding into onto a lock on his left leg and then getting the magnum and putting in the holster on his right leg. He quietly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Walking down to the first floor he found the GS barking orders at his men again, probably switching patrol shifts so the men walking about all night could get some rest. He walked past a couple marines in the hallway just nodding to them and walking on. Karl had a slight limp but nothing too severe to where he would need painkillers to stop his throbbing leg, instead choosing to bare the pain. "Morning Dao." Dao looked behind him to see Karl in full battle armor, unlike yesterday. "Morning Kuhn, you look ready to kill shit." Dao said shaking the man's hand again.

"So I forgot to ask but what's the manpower like?" Karl asked taking the assault rifle off his back sling. Dao shrugged, "About 24 marines 5 local law enforcement and a few medical personnel from ONI." Karl nodded showing he was listening. "So how'd you sleep Kuhn?" Dao asked with a serious look, Karl noticing this knowing he wasn't hinting anything. "I slept well, thanks." He said with a shrug. Dao nodded and barked an order at a marine that was slacking, the marine immediately patrolling more efficiently.

"So, any of your guys trying to make contact with high command?" Karl asked keeping on alert, being outside the building. "I have my tech experts handling that, problem is everything they have tried hasn't been working, we think they have jammers somewhere in the city." Dao said sighing harshly. "Well I could handle that, if it is not an issue, you could have your techies track the interference signal and send me the cords, I could be there in less than an hour blow it to hell, and we could have ourselves some airstrikes on the covie positions." Karl said finishing with a explosion effect with his mouth. "Well you are in luck, we have spotted one a while back, but the recon team never returned, but they told us before we lost comms. We just havn't gotten anyone to deal with it since I am low on men as it is and Ramsay's cowardice 'stand your ground' attitude." Dao said with a pat on Karl's shoulder.

"I could get it for you, just don't tell my remaining team member." Karl said while an engineer passed him a bag full of C4 explosives at the order of the angry Gunnery Sergeant. "You have my word. She someone you care about?" Dao asked thoughtfully. "Yeah, my last remaining friend and team member of a whole platoon, means a whole lot to me for her not to be KIA." Karl said shrugging. Dao nodded and patted him on the back. "Well fuck them up, I will give you the cords and you can use that advanced as shit helmet to find it. Good luck sergeant." Dao said with a final nod and Karl then run- jogged into the dark streets below. Hoping he would not die and see Brandy again and get them the hell out of this combat zone for some much needed RnR.

After jogging for a good hour to the marked location on his HUD he sighed and took a break, his leg hurt like a bitch but he pushed past that and started running again after a minute of catching his breath.

Karl ran to a large building and began making his way up the stairs at a steady pace, making sure to keep his rifle aimed ahead of him. Soon he came across some bodies lining the hallway, 'this must have been the recon team' he thought as he looked at the corpses of the 4 marines with obvious energy sword slashes in all of their chests. That did not help the feeling he was already having in his chest but he pushed on and not for a second did he stop to catch his breath until he was at the very top of the building, the 150 story building, 'this is going to be a while' he thought as he looked at the 25th floor marker near one of the hallways.

After finally making it to the very top story he collapsed and looked up at the sky, he was above the smoke and he could see the blue sky. It was a very hot day, that did not help his labored breathing. He looked to his left and saw a dead marine with a grapple hook, most likely to get to an opposite roof. Karl got up and went over to the corpse and grabbed the hook, looking over the side he saw what it was there for. The jammer was about 20 stories down on a shorter building, with at least 2 grunt squads with an elite minor leading each one. He then looked the see a zealot leading them, the same one that nearly killed him a day earlier. He was going to get revenge for his leg. Karl then thought of how he stabbed the elite in the arm, 'karma I guess' he thought as he grabbed a spare grapple hook and what looked like a very durable cable acting as rope. Karl saw that a rope was already down to the jammer building.' Makes my life a whole lot easier' he thought as he prepared to zip down. He had done this before on Reach and trained many times doing it, so he knew exactly what to do.

Sliding down at a very rapid pace he slammed onto the ground, all of the enemies noticed him almost immediately. He had planned for this however and ducked behind cover just before they decided to shoot. He heard them barking orders and knew they were going to try and flank him. Going completely prone he waited for them to come around the corner, assault rifle ready. When the elite minor and grunts came around the corner of the wall he unloaded into the elite first, quickly draining it's shields and then pelting it's flesh full of lead. it fell to the ground with a thump. Karl then put the assault rifle onto his back and grabbed the smg from his leg, unloading 40 of the 60 rounds in the magazine killing all the grunts. After that was over he took his assault rifle back out popping in a magazine as he had drained the first one. Priming a flashbang he still had he threw it over the wall quickly and ducked again after the bang he vaulted over the wall and unloaded into the zealot not draining its shields all the way down after the magazine. Throwing the rifle to the ground he knew it had just enough to not be able to resist a magnum round. Un holstering his pistol he aimed precisely for it's head and shooting a 50 caliber round it pierced right through it's shields entering its head and splattering purple blood all over the door off the roof behind it. Quickly training the pistol to the second elite minor and grunts before the effects died out he unloaded to the rest of the magazine into the elite and dropped it to the ground. Hastily pulling a grenade Karl chunked it into the group of panicking grunts and jumped back behind the wall he was behind previously, the grenade soon went off and with some screams and a leg landing next to him he found out soon they were all dead, peaking over the wall they were all dead.

Taking a deep breath he climbed over the wall and walked towards the spike shaped jammer. Planting the C4 quickly and setting the timer for 2 minutes, knowing the trigger could at times be unreliable and he knew that he already had a way of escape so he could make it safely back. After guarding the bomb for the first 30 seconds to make sure no reinforcements came and stopped the bomb from going off he ran to the side of the building and attached the grapple to the side, making sure it was sturdy and would not slip before he would descend.

He clipped his utility belt to the rope and began descending carefully, knowing a fall from this height would kill him he went slowly and carefully. He heard the explosion and saw plasma and purple pieces of the jammer flew all over the place hitting buildings a few hundred feet away. Eventually making it to the ground he sighed and unhooked himself quickly sprinting back to the ONI base. His leg was in pain and he was extremely exhausted, but he did not stop running. Eventually going to a jog as he got closer to the base.

He saw the base and was quickly greeted by a angry looking Brandy as he got close. She wrapped her arms around him, not caring if anyone saw them and he was sweaty and covered in purple blood. "You could have told me you were leaving you asshole!" She yelled almost crying. He patted her back as she hugged him. "Sorry I had to leave on short notice, I am fine, see, not a scratch." Brandy looked over him for a second and nodded. "Smoothest mission I have done in a while actually." He said with a satisfied huff and began walking to Dao who was coming to greet him, Brandy in tow. "Great fucking job! We already made contact with the UNSC after heard the bigass explosion and my techies told me that they were getting a signal." Dao said patting Karl's shoulder. "You are one hell of a brave soldier." Dao stated again turning and gesturing for Karl to come with him, Brandy next to him he began walking back into the base.

Once he made it into the cool building he leaned on a wall and fell to the ground, back against a wall and took off his helmet. Sweat dripping down his face and dirt and blood on his armor. Brandy kissed him on the forehead, not giving a care that he was sweaty. He looked at Brandy and smiled, she returned it, "I'm still mad at you." She said flicking his ear, Karl muttering and 'ow' and rubbing his ear. "Water... Could I have some water." Karl asked her with a dry cough. She nodded and left, leaving Karl to his thoughts.

'She cares for me greatly, but I also care about her that's why I didn't want her on this mission' he thought to himself as he stripped the armor off his arms. Unstrapping the vest on his chest he felt that it was much cooler with the heat absorbing armor he was wearing. Brandy was just returning as he wiped his forehead, also she had a towel. She bent down on her knee and handed him the water bottle and towel. Karl took the towel and wiped his face of all the sweat. He then drunk some of the water and poured the rest of the bottle on the top of his head.

When he rubbed his chin as if in thought he felt how he was growing a stubble, when he got out of here, he was going to shave, take a shower, then shave. He broken from his thoughts when Dao came through the door and looked at Karl. "Looks like that jammer was the only one in the city, I think you saved this entire city Kuhn." Dao said while bending down and giving him a hard pat on the shoulder. 'I saved the whole city, so that was the 'only' jammer?' He thought hard and then smiled. "Just doing my job, saving people." Karl said with a grin on his face, a little pride in his chest for the good deed he did for the day. The UNSC would save them. They had to.

After about an hour Karl and Brandy were sitting next to each other just sitting silently holding each other. Karl heard the all too familiar sound of a pelican, and also he heard a lot more gunshots then the hour prior. I guess every man in the whole city was calling the UNSC for defense, the UNSC knew what was going on, but no one could give them coordinates for airstrikes or have them be aimed MAC cannon strikes that wouldn't harm civilians. Dao walked in and looked very happy. "Looks like we are going to get a long needed brake boy and gal." He said. Karl got up and Brandy got up with him, she had her armor on now and put her helmet on. Karl was putting his upper body armor back on and slipped his helmet on, ignoring the stench of sweat in it.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Karl said shaking Dao's hand. When Karl got outside he saw several Pelican's dropping off warthog's and what looked like planet defense forces. A pelican landed nearby and dropped off at least 40 marines who he guessed would be taking the exhausted platoon's post. Karl looked to Dao, "Hey want to help me grab Ramsay." Karl asked and Dao nodded his head enthusiastically. "Brandy get in the pelican I will be there soon." Brandy nodded and got in the pelican, the mask of a soldier covering their affection. Karl and Dao walked to the holding cell that Ramsay was in, he sat in the corner rambling about 'insubordination' and 'court martialing everyone here'. Karl shook his head and Dao opened to cell. Ramsay looked up to them, "So, come to finally get me of the orders of Admiral Hood?" "Nope here to get you to have you be discharged for getting 40 ODST killed you prick." Dao responded with venom on his tongue. They both grabbed Ramsay and Karl slapped zip ties on his hands. With a lot of force they dragged him to the pelican. Karl noticed how the rest of the Platoon was already in there waiting for them to pull Ramsay in. They dragged him in and plopped him in a seat, quickly putting the safety bar over his chest and locking it. Ramsay remained silent, to everyone's surprise.

Soon they lifted off with Dao's command and were heading towards what would probably a base somewhere in North America. Before the ramp closed Karl looked out of the pelican and saw Sabers and pelicans all over the place. ' Looks like the covenant is being besieged now' Karl thought as he saw a large UNSC fleet hover around the city.


	7. Chapter 7

2 Days after New Mombasa

Fort Hood - North America.

Karl opened his eyes, he was in a barrack in Fort Hood, a base that he enjoyed staying at. He had been getting a lot of praise after his actions in New Mombasa, how he had saved pretty much the whole city on his own, not even knowing that that one oddly enough not very guarded jammer was the only one in the city. He was exhausted, for the last couple days he had been going through physical therapy for his leg wound and a lot of discussions with officers about a possible promotion and a medal. Karl personally did not like all the attention, he hadn't even seen Brandy since their arrival. 'I miss her' he thought as he got out of the hard bed in his barrack. All the other ODST in it were still asleep, he had always gotten up early to get ahead of the day.

Karl put on his ODST Cap as he stepped out into the warm Texas sun. It was always nice here at Fort Hood, not a lot of rain and not too much sun, it was a perfect day to take a walk. Karl was strolling along the sidewalk next to the road, a couple other soldiers walking past every once and a while or a warthog darting down the road. He had been given a new stripe, more or less a promotion and he was now a Gunnery Sergeant. Leading a whole squad now instead of a team, he also had more responsibilities in the platoon he was assigned with. Now with a more competent officer, one that was not a coward like Ramsay. Speaking of Ramsay Karl hadn't heard a word from the man since they arrived, he had not even been called to the court martial, which he was glad, it would probably be later on that he would speak his side of the story. Since it was a trial of Ramsay versus the 40 men he had killed.

Karl continued to walk down and he would get nods and smiles from everyone he passed, he was obviously famous or at least popular among the marines here since what he did had been an amazing thing. Karl observed the buildings as he walked by, seeing many of them being barracks every once and a while he would see a guard post with a couple of tired looking marines. Since it was about 7 am no one was up and about really until 8, usually morning joggers and marines wanting to get to where they were going early. Karl soon arriving at the Gymnasium which was a large building containing work out equipment for indoor PT( Physical Training). Karl entered the building taking his cap off and stuffing it in his combat pants pocket.

Karl walked over to the locker rooms, upon opening the door he saw several other marines and nodded to them. "Morning boys." Karl said while walking over to his locker. "Morning sergeant." Said one of them. They were other marines from his platoon, from the looks of it they were doing the same thing he was, getting a morning workout before the daily trainings. But sadly Karl could only sit back and watch until the doctors cleared him, it was a major draw back to getting to know his new platoon and what they were capable of.

Karl took off his normal on base clothing and put on athletic shorts and shirt, which showed off his toned and athletic built body. He closed his locker and while turning to leave he caught a female marine staring, he ignored it getting this attention commonly, he shrugged and left the locker room walking over to one of the bench presses. He put on 60 pounds of weight on both sides, not wanting it too heavy so he could get a decent workout in and not hurt himself, knowing putting too much strain on the muscles were bad. He got in ready position and started working out. "Need someone to spot for you?" Came a familiar voice, he stopped and put the bar back on the rack. He was still laying down and looking behind him he saw Brandy, Karl smiled at her and she walked over bending down and giving him a quick kiss since the rest of the marines were still in the locker room, probably talking more than changing.

"Actually now that I think about it I don't want to die, so yeah sure." Karl said while picking the bar back up and getting in the ready position. Brandy got behind him and gave the all clear with a thumbs up and he began pumping iron again. "So I havn't seen you since we got here, and that kind of sucks. Looks like we were assigned to different platoons." Brandy said with a sigh. Karl stopped and put the bar back on the rack, getting up and standing in front of her. "Yeah, it seems that way. We won't see each other much probably." Karl said leaning on a wall nearby. Brandy joined him. "Yep, so any time together should be special right. I knew you would probably be here, since I know you like to come here and work out all the time, considering your leg and all, no running." Karl nodded, "Join me?" He said walking over to the exit. He could get his clothes later. "Sure." Brandy said walking next to him. As they left the building she put her own cap on. They began walking towards a small nature park that was a few hundred feet from where they were.

"So. How's your new platoon, any good?" Karl asked. "Eh, they are okay, but it's not as good there without you, of course." Brandy said in a sad tone.

"Yeah I know it sucks, but we will have to figure something out, I mean we could meet around every morning around this time at the nature park, nothing wrong with it right?" Karl replied with a smile on his face at the good idea. "I mean, it's not a bad idea at all but it is not as private as it could be." Brandy said with a devilish smirk. Karl let out a chuckle, "Yeah I'm sure you would love to get me in a private area, corporal." Karl said with his own flirty tone. Brandy punched his arm, "No need to use rank. Sergeant." Karl rubbed his arm, "Hey, no need to get physical, I might court martial you for assault." They both laughed.

Soon the couple arrived at the park and both took a seat at a bench. This was the nicest place on the whole base, not all concrete and metal. Many soldiers went here to get their mind off of war or just enjoy themselves. Karl put his arm around Brandy's shoulder and she laid her head against him. They sat there for a while before they had a long kiss and had to depart to their own platoons.

Karl returned to the gym and got all of his clothes putting his workout clothes in the laundry and walking back to his barrack.

After he arrived there he found all of the men and women in their lines against the beds as the lieutenant was checking over all of them. He turned to Karl, "Kuhn! You are late, mind to explain?" He said walking up to the man in question. "Sir, I was at the gym for physical training, when I got distracted, sir." He said sitting at attention. "Distracted by what?" The lieutenant replied calmly. "A friend I havn't seen in a while, my apologies sir." Karl said looking at the shorter man before him. "Mhm, well, fall in." The officer said motioning towards the line. Karl nodded, saluted and fell in with his squad.

His new lieutenant was patient and kind, but also serious and from what Karl saw a great tactician and leader. His name was Bradley Calahan. An interesting name to say the least. He was also a rare person to piss of, and didn't curse much, probably religious Karl usually said to himself.

"Alright, here is the deal. Our First Sergeant, as you all know is old and was recently hospitalized, well I hate to say this, but he has passed, and command has seen fit to let Mr. Late here." Calahan finished pointing towards Karl, "To replace the man." He finished walking in front of Karl and handing him his new ranks. 'Promoted twice in 2 days, holy shit' he thought as he took them and saluted the lieutenant. "Also on a second note you are medically cleared, so you will be attending this training session-" He was cut off as an alarm started to go off.

"What in gods name?" Calahan said, "That's a code 3 alarm, this is not a drill. Platoon! Get to the armor, double time!" He said pushing some of the soldiers towards the armory that was at the far side of the barracks. Karl immediately started to direct men to the armory while also grabbing his magnum from his holster, as his rank allowed it. He went to the entrance while everyone was going to the armory to get their gear. He opened the door and peaked outside, what he saw would stay in his mind forever. A small covenant ship was over the base sending phantoms down. 'How did they get past the fleet, are they alone? Trying to cause as much damage as possible while running from our fleet?' he though to himself and soon found a plasma mark right next to his head. He looked to the left to see an elite running at him. He easily went back inside and closed the door, locking it.

Karl ran to the armory and went to his locker, dodging through other ODST while going to it. He opened it up and started quickly putting his armor on soon putting on his helmet and grabbing his MA5 assault rifle and as many magazines as he good carry. With his new rank he was walking up to others who were struggling and assisting them as fast as he could. Being pretty much the assistant platoon leader. Calahan shouted over the chatter and yelling. "Alright men, hurry up we need to get out there and cause hell, Kuhn what did you see?" He said running over to Kuhn while putting his helmet on. "Sir, there were covenant right outside our door, but I have a plan." Karl said while helping a young marine get his chest armor on. Karl turned to the lieutenant while loading a magazine into his rifle and chambering a round.

"You will need to trust me to lead these men for escaping this building sir. You didn't see what I saw out there, we need to group up with 2nd Platoon. Together we can drive the covies out of the fort." Karl said while putting a hand on Calahan's shoulder. Calahan nodded, "Gather 10 men and secure an exit first sergeant." He said patting Karl on the shoulder. Karl nodded and pointed at 10 marines. "You men with me, now!" He said while exiting the armory, they followed and seemed ready to kick ass, which is why he picked them.

Karl stopped them, "Alright we got a couple enemy squads, we need to clear them out, two elite minors and some grunts in two squads. Now here is what I want you to do I want two teams 5 in each, first team when we open that door, you all chuck grenades out the door from behind a bed that we will place at the door for cover. Team two I want you guys after the grenades go off, to run outside and secure a perimeter around the door, you will not be out there long all the rest of the platoon should be out there by then. Go!" He said while pointing to their positions. They all nodded with a 'Yes sergeant' and ran to their positions, ready for his signal. "Alright, now! fuck them up!" Karl said. They all did what he said Team 2 opened the door and team 1 threw the grenades outside. All 5 went off a couple seconds later, and with no fear team 2 went outside and there were only a couple gunshots. Karl exited followed by team 1 to find all the covenant dead, a couple with missing limbs.

Karl crouched and looked around. All he saw was fire and destroyed buildings. Soon a marine appeared and ran over to him, who looked to be in shock and not even wearing his combat uniform. "Oh thank god! They are everywhere." The man said running towards Karl. Karl stood up, while Calahan came with the rest of the platoon. All of them carrying boxes and beds to secure a bit of cover from the open. "Hold it right there!" Karl said and he stopped the man in his tracks." "Is, something wrong?" The man said, while shaking severely. Karl shook ih head, "You got a weapon marine? If not grab a covie one." Karl said handing the man a needler that was lying in a detached limb of a grunt. "Fall in marine we are taking this base back." Karl said walking over to Calahan.

The man seemed deep in thought as he looked at the corpses of both human and covenant lying around the streets. He turned to Karl. "I need you to link up with 2nd platoon. We need them to get over to us so we can have a larger force and push the covenant out, I will put a call over comms for any remaining soldiers to get to our barracks. I will also be getting some better defenses. Beds and footlockers will not hold back that much plasma." Calahan said as he turned and yelled an order at a couple men. "Also take the previous team you used before, you seem to be good with them, good luck." He said as he waved Karl off. Karl didn't even say a word before running up to his original squad and telling them all to come with him.


	8. Chapter 8

Karl and his 10 man squad were full sprint to 2nd Platoon's barracks, all covenant that got in their way were immediately put down quickly and efficiently by him and his squad.

Karl finally saw the barrack building in sight and while controlling his breathing which was becoming more and more difficult by the minute. Karl heard gunshots and knew that they were probably under attack. He directed the soldiers to break into 2 squads 5 in each and to flank around both sides of about 3 jackals and 4 grunts that were guarding the entrance. "Alright begin the attack." Karl shouted over the comms, and a few seconds later all of the covenant in front of the door were pelted with lead.

Karl rushed up to the building, "Prepare breaching positions, let's make sure non of them got inside." Karl said as they got in breaching position. "I'll take the lead, all of you be ready." He said loading a fresh magazine into his assault rifle.

"Breach!" Karl yelled at the top of his lungs as he kicked in the door and ran inside. Karl immediately stopped in his tracks, to see Brandy in her trademark purple shoulder padded armor, in the hands of an elite major with an energy sword through her abdomen. Corpses of all of second platoon and many covenant bodies covered the barracks. Blood and body parts everywhere. Karl looked at Brandy most likely dead in the elite's hand. He didn't think he acted, Karl sprinted up to the elite unsheathing his knife and jumped onto the back of the elite screaming a battle cry no one has ever heard him scream before. Karl stabbed the knife into the back of the elite's throat getting a gurgling groan in response, and the elite fell to the floor in response.

Karl left the knife in and ran over to Brandy's body, pulling out the energy sword, and she let out a cry of pain at the action. "It's okay Brandy I'm here, no one will hurt you..." Karl said while trying to choke back the tears that were trying to escape his eyes. His squad was sitting and watching while only a couple were making sure nothing came through the entrance. Karl sat there with her in his arms for a few minutes, she was crying and Karl was trying his best not to. Karl slowly pulled of Brandy's helmet and he could see her beautiful face again. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay, I'm going to get you help." Karl said as he lifted her bridal style, she slowly put her arm around his neck to support herself a little more.

"Alright, let's double time it back, I have the only survivor, let's move!" Karl shouted at the marines as he ran out the door. Karl was quickly followed by his squad as they ran as fast as they could back to the 1st platoon barracks, just in time to see a UNSC frigate put 2 MAC rounds through the corvette and seeing it explode Karl smiled just a little, knowing that victory was in their grasp.

Calahan spotted the squad coming back and jumped over the now placed sandbags to greet Karl and his squad back. "Where is 2nd platoon?" Calahan asked, already knowing the answer. Karl just ran past him, "This is it." Karl said as he handed Brandy over to a medic team that took her and pulled her inside. Karl didn't follow to try and get his mind straight, not letting instinct take over during a combat situation.

"Well, the rest of the base is being swiftly cleared, looks like this covie strike was easily taken down. I just got off with command actually and the covies took more casualties than we did." Calahan said as Karl walked over to the sandbags and sat down against them, taking a deep breath. He watched as UNSC fighters shot down the remaining phantoms and banshees. Calahan walked over to Karl and sat down next to him. "So, she special to you?" He asked Karl as he as well observed the display in the skies. Karl only nodded, trying his best to try and forget her for now. "To be honest sir, I don't want to talk about it, I want to be left to my thoughts." Karl said in a harsh tone. Calahan nodded, "I understand i'll leave you to your thoughts but I will need you to get casualty counts, as your new position in the platoon requires." Calahan said and then walked off leaving Karl alone, other than a few passing marines.

Karl thought about the amount of men in 2nd platoon.' 40 men plus the platoon leader and company commander were over there, that means 41 casualties' Karl thought and he had 2 wounded in his platoon, plus Brandy. '41 dead 3 wounded' Karl thought as he mental noted that to himself. Then Karl's thoughts drifted off to when he first met Rogers at basic training and Brandy when he got his new platoon assignment with Rogers after Reach. How they had developed a friendship after he stuck up for her when she was being teased by a few other platoon members. He had always helped her, one way or another. It is almost like fate now that he thought about it. They had only been together less than a week but he could say that he 'loved her' and cared for her as if they had been together for a year.

Karl got up after a few more minutes of thinking about Brandy, he had to check on her. Karl walked into the barracks that was filled with chatter and very tired shock troopers. It was mainly about the battle and then there was other nonsense, normal soldier talk. Karl walked over to the infirmary, to see Brandy hooked up to a machine, he hated seeing her wounded, but it wasn't the first time he had seen her wounded, but not this badly. A medic was nearby making sure her vitals were stable and in good shape. Karl stood at the entrance, "Oh, hey sergeant, come on in." The medic said waving him to come in. "How's our last remaining survivor of 2nd platoon." Karl asked in a stern tone. "Well, she is doing, okay? I guess you could say, we filled her wound with biofoam and she is all patched up, but well she seems like the sword did a lot of internal damage and we will need to get her to the hospital soon or her organs will stop functioning." The medic finished. Karl nodded and then left the room. He walked out the back and headed to the park. After a few minutes he got there and sat back on a tree. Taking off his helmet he put his face into his palms, and cried, for the first time in his military career the pressure got to him. The love of his life possibly dying being the trigger.

After a few minutes of crying he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, taking in a ton of air into his lungs and slowly exhaling. Slowly he fell asleep, he was tired and just a quick nap would make him feel better.

He woke up to a nudging at his shoulder, "Wake up sergeant." He heard Calahan's voice say. Karl opened his eyes and saw Calahan in front of him. "She made it to a hospital, she is in critical though. The wounds are getting to her." Calahan said putting a hand on his shoulder. Karl nodded his head, "How long was I out?" Karl asked sitting up and putting his helmet back on. "I am not sure but if I could guess after about 3 hours of you missing I looked around and found you here, sleeping." Calahan said motioning Karl to follow him. Karl walked along side Calahan on their way to the garage so they could get a warthog to get to the hospital. "So why couldn't they have her at the military hospital?" Karl asked as he jumped into the passenger seat. Calahan sighed, "It was destroyed, and about half of the staff were slaughtered." Karl let out a deep sigh as they left the garage and out of the base. For the first time in a while when they reached the city of Waco, Karl saw civilization, something he had not been accustomed to in a long time because of his military career.

They parked the warthog in the lot and walked into the hospital, the people in it were shocked to see two soldiers in full battle armor with purple blood on it, especially Karl. Most of the people had shocked looks on their faces and avoided the two as they walked up to the front desk. The nurse there was expecting them though as Calahan had called them ahead of time. "Oh, hello sirs, she is in room 12. Right down the hall." The nurse pointed and Karl nodded, Calahan staying in the lobby.

Karl walked to the room and opened it to see her out of her armor in a hospital gown and attached to several machines. It seems she was asleep, they weren't joking saying she was in critical condition, they had her on so many machines, especially a life support one which made Karl let out a sad sigh. Karl took off his armored glove and took her hand carefully. Stroking it softly with his thumb as he mumbled, "I'm sorry I couldn't have gotten there sooner Brandy, I am usually always on time, sorry I wasn't this time." Karl said as he felt a tear going down his cheek under his helmet. After a few minutes of sitting there and just being in her presence, he heard a machine go off and looked to see her heart rate almost stop. 'Oh fuck' he thought as a couple of doctors came into the room. Karl knew he had to leave, so he got up and left the room without a word.

He went out to the lobby and saw Calahan there waiting for him. "Sir I'm going to stay here, until I know she is going to live or die." Karl said sternly. "Well I need that casualty repor-" He was cut off when Karl said "41 dead 3 wounded, sir." Karl said quickly. Calahan nodded, "Well you can keep the warthog, I'll get someone to pick me up. Stay as long as you have to." He said handing Karl the keys. Karl nodded and took them putting them in a pouch, he went and sat down in a chair in the lobby. He caught one of the patrons staring but ignored it staring off into space and eventually falling asleep.

He was awoken once again to a nudging at his shoulder. He saw a doctor in front of him. "Sir?" The doctor said tapping his helmet. "Yeah, I'm awake, what." He said sternly shaking his head a little to wake himself up. "Sir, are you the SO of the women in there?" The doctor asked. Karl nodded. "Well sir, I don't know how to say this but she has passed away, a painless death at least." At that Karl didn't know what to say, he sat there paralyzed and shocked, his heart dropped as if he was falling from a building. "Okay, thanks for... Letting me know." Karl said as he choked back tears. The doctor pulled her dog tags from his pocket and gave them to Karl. Karl just held them in his hand, "Thank you doctor, you tried your best." Karl said with little emotion as possible and walked out the front. He walked over to the warthog, not getting in just staring at nothingness. It was quiet and the sun was starting to set. Karl felt a wave of anger hit him. He punched the warthog as hard as he could, causing a dent even in the armored vehicle, not caring if he broke something. Karl felt himself collapse into the pavement. Feeling nothing but sadness overwhelm him as he cried. Karl had never cried this much before. the thought of losing his girlfriend and last remaining friend of his original team. Crying was all he could think of as he laid on the pavement of the hospital parking lot.

Karl finally got up and got into the warthog, he was shaking but finally got a hold of himself so he could drive properly. He made his way back to the base and arrived back at the garage, parking the warthog back in it's assigned place. Karl walked slowly back to the barracks, not caring if anyone just went up to him and shot him point blank with a shotgun, it was like it already happened anyways. He opened the barracks door to find the rest of the platoon asleep already except a few playing cards in a corner. He fell into his bed, ready for a long restless sleep. So he didn't sleep, instead he walked over to the marines in the corner. "Mind if I join boys?" Karl asked taking off his helmet and putting it under his arm. "Sure sarge join right in." One of the soldiers replied enthusiastically. Karl sat down and joined them for a long night of poker and blackjack until finally succumbing to exhaustion and plopped into his bed, falling asleep almost instantly.


	9. Chapter 9

Epilogue

Karl walked towards Brandy's grave, she had been buried in a family grave that was in her hometown in the hill country of northern Texas. It was a quiet town and she had been raised in the middle of no where, now Karl was there. He was wearing his daily uniform, the ODST shirt and combat pants with an ODST cap on his head. He was clean shaven now, it was 7 months after her death and he had been promoted again after he had served another tour on a colony planet to protect the colony. "A lot has happened, some of it you won't believe..." Karl took a deep breath as he continued, "The Sangheili were betrayed by the prophets it seems, and they are also all dead now. I wish I could say the war is over, but it isn't. The brutes who are dumb enough to still follow the prophets are still fighting and a lot of grunts, hunter, and jackals still follow them. I will be fighting for a long while longer." Karl said as he took a knee before the grave. "Oh and, uhm, I visited Roger's grave, not that there is one, but he is in the memorial site about the war, it is hard to forget you two, but sadly I'm going to have to let go. I will visit some but it might turn yearly rather than monthly, because apparently Hood himself has a special mission for me, so I might not be around as often. I hope you understand." Karl finished off, a single tear running down his cheek. Karl got off his knee and walked over to the warthog that was waiting for him, he looked up at the mirror and took down the photo that was hanging there. It was a picture of all three of them Karl, Rogers and Brandy together. Karl put it in his pocket, starting the engine of the warthog. He sat there for a moment, just thinking and trying to guess what the mission would be. Then he pulled the warthog around and drove off to on his road trip to the base then off to Berlin, Germany.

* * *

Hello anyone that may or may not still be reading this story, which I have decided to finish after it really got no reviews or favorites or anything. I can't tell if people like it or not so basically I have nothing to keep it going. If you did enjoy the story however make sure to let me know, or if there was a flaw in my writing let me know please as I am new to this and some tips may help me out a lot. The reason I lost inspiration to write this, is out of the 300+ views most of them aren't visitors I guess and no one completely reads or follows. Not even 1 review out of the 100+ people who have read the story a bit, or one favorite now that I think about it.

Well I am off to try and guess what my next fanfiction will be about, until then good bye if you have read this far. Reviews are welcome and sorry to the two people that are following this story.


	10. Author's Note

I just wanted to let everyone know how much a single review can mean to me, a single review made me write the sequel that I am working on now, and if you finish this story make sure to go check out my sequel.

The single review that I got inspired me and made my day. So it meant a lot to me. Anyway enough of the repetitive me, I hope you enjoyed the story and if not, well that's up to you if you liked it or not. So make sure to drop a review or favorite if you enjoyed, or did not as I said.

-Stevie


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